John Gribbin

Best known for In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, he has also written biographies of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Buddy Holly. Robert Macfarlane calls him "one of the finest and most prolific writers of popular science around."

• Name — John Gribbin • Birth Name — John R. Gribbinth • Born — 19 March 1946 • Birthplace — Maidstone, Kent, England • Occupation — Science writer and journalist • Education — University of Sussex (BA, MSc) University of Cambridge (PhD) • Period — Last quarter of the 20th century, beginning of the 21st century • Genre — Science (origins of the universe, astronomy, cosmology); biography; fiction • Subject — Astronomy and astrophysics; popularising science and its history; climate change and global warming • Spouse — Mary Gribbin • Honorific Suffix — FRSL

John Gribbin graduated with his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Sussex in 1966. He then earned his Master of Science (MSc) degree in astronomy in 1967, also from the University of Sussex, and he earned his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge (1971). In 1968, Gribbin worked as one of Fred Hoyle's research students at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, and wrote a number of stories for New Scientist about the institute's research and what were eventually discovered to be pulsars. In 1974, Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann published The Jupiter Effect, which predicted that the alignment of the planets in a quadrant on one side of the Sun on 10 March 1982 would cause gravitational effects that would trigger earthquakes in the San Andreas Fault, possibly wiping out Los Angeles and its suburbs. Gribbin distanced himself from The Jupiter Effect in the 17 July 1980, issue of New Scientist magazine, stating that he had been "too clever by half". In February 1982, he and Plagemann published The Jupiter Effect Reconsidered, claiming that the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption proved their theory true despite a lack of planetary alignment. In 1999, Gribbin repudiated it, saying "I don't like it, and I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it." In 1984, Gribbin published In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. Robert Macfarlane writes that it "was among the best of the first wave of physics popularisations to share in the success of Stephen Hawking's multi-million-selling A Brief History of Time. Margaret Atwood – who was one of the writers, along with Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, and Tom Stoppard, to get very excited about the new physics – read it, assimilated it, and credited Gribbin warmly in the back of her subsequent novel, Cat’s Eye.” Gribbin's book was cited by BBC World News as an example of how to revive an interest in the study of mathematics. Gribbin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. He has been a guest on In Our Time, discussing "Science in the 20th Century" with Mary Midgley. In 2006, Gribbin took part in a BBC radio 4 broadcast as an "expert witness". Presenter Matthew Parris discussed with Professor Kathy Sykes and Gribbin whether Albert Einstein "really was a 'crazy genius. At the 2009 World Conference of Science Journalists, the Association of British Science Writers presented Gribbin with their Lifetime Achievement award.

• (1976) Astronomy for the Amateur, Macmillan, • (1976) Our Changing Universe: The New Astronomy, Dutton, • (1977) White Holes: Cosmic Gushers in the Universe, Delacorte Press/E. Friede, • (1980) The Death of the Sun, Dell Publishing (also as The Strangest Star: The Scientific Account of the Life and Death of the Sun, 1980, Athlone Press) • (1991) Blinded by the Light: The Secret Life of the Sun, Bantam, • (1996) Companion to the Cosmos (with Mary Gribbin), Little: • (1998) The Case of the Missing Neutrinos: And Other Phenomena of the Universe, Fromm Intl. • (1998) Watching the Universe, Constable, • (2001) Stardust: Supernovae and Life: The Cosmic Connection (with Mary Gribbin) • (2008) Galaxies: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, USA. • (2008) From Here to Infinity: The Royal Observatory Greenwich Guide to Astronomy (with Mary Gribbin), National Maritime Museum; republished in 2009 as From Here to Infinity: A Beginner's Guide to Astronomy, Sterling • (2011) Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique, John Wiley & Sons, • (2018) "Alone in the Milky Way: Why we are probably the only intelligent life in the galaxy", Scientific American, vol. 319, no. 3 (September 2018), pp. 94–99.

• (1985) In Search of the Double Helix, McGraw-Hill, • (1985) The Redundant Male: Is Sex Irrelevant in the Modern World? (with Jeremy Cherfas) Paladin, • (1988) The One Percent Advantage: The Sociobiology of Being Human, Blackwell Publishers, • (1990) Children of the Ice: Climate and Human Origins, Blackwell Publishers (with Mary Gribbin) • (1993) Being Human: Putting People in an Evolutionary Perspective, J.M.Dent & Sons (with Mary Gribbin) • (2003) The Mating Game (revised edition of The Redundant Male), Barnes and Noble, • (2003) The First Chimpanzee: In Search of Human Origins (with Cherfas), Barnes and Noble,

• (1986) In Search of the Big Bang, Bantam, • (1988) The Omega Point: The Search for the Missing Mass and the Ultimate Fate of the Universe, Bantam, • (1989) Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology (with Martin Rees) Bantam, • (1994) In the Beginning: After COBE and Before the Big Bang, Bulfinch Press, • (1997) Origins: Our Place in Hubble's Universe, Constable and Robinson (as Empire of the Sun, '98; as Cosmos '06) • (2001) The Birth of Time: How Astronomers Measured the Age of the Universe, Yale University Press, (2009 edition) • (2001) Hyperspace: The Universe and Its Mysteries (also pub as Space: Our Final Frontier), DK ADULT, • (2007) The Universe: A Biography, Allen Lane, • (2015) 13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything, Icon Books,

• (1975) Our Changing Climate, Faber & Faber, • (1976) Forecasts, Famines, and Freezes: Climates and Man's Future, Wildwood House Ltd, • (1977) Our Changing Planet, Wildwood House Limited • (1978) Climatic Change, Cambridge University Press • (1978) The climatic threat: What's wrong with our weather?, Fontana • (1979) Climate and Mankind, Earthscan, 56 pp • (1979) This Shaking Earth (aka Earthquakes & Volcanoes) Sidgwick & Jackson, • (1979) Weather Force: Climate and Its Impact on Our World (with John Man), Putnam Pub Group, • (1981) Carbon Dioxide, Climate, and Man, Intl Inst for Environment, 64 pp. • (1982) Future Weather and the Greenhouse Effect, Delacorte Press, • (1985) Weather, Macdonald Education, 48 pp. • (1986) The Breathing Planet (editor) Blackwell Publishers, • (1988) The Hole in the Sky: Man's Threat to the Ozone Layer (rev. ed, 1993) Bantam, • (1989) Winds of Change, Hodder Arnold, • (1990) Hothouse Earth: The Greenhouse Effect and Gaia, Random House, • (1992) Too Hot to Handle? Greenhouse Effect, Corgi, • (1996) Watching the Weather, Trafalgar Square,

• (1999) Almost Everyone's Guide to Science: The Universe, Life, and Everything, Yale University Press, • (1999) Get a Grip on New Physics, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. • (1999) The Little Book of Science, Barnes and Noble, • (2004) Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order To Chaos And Complexity, Random House, 2004, • (2020) Seven Pillars of Science, Icon Books Ltd,

• (2003) Science: A History 1543–2001, Gardners Books, (published in the US as The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors), Random House, • (2005) Annus Mirabilis: 1905, Albert Einstein, and the Theory of Relativity (with Mary Gribbin), Chamberlain Bros. (includes DVD) • (2006) The Fellowship: The Story of a Revolution, Allen Lane, (the story of the Royal Society) • (2006) History of Western Science, 1543-2001, Folio Society, London [2nd edition of Science: A History, 1543-2001, with minor amendments and a new preface by the author]. • (2009) Flower Hunters, Oxford University Press, (with Mary Gribbin) • (2016) Einstein's Masterwork: 1915 and the General Theory of Relativity, Pegasus Books • (2017) (with Mary Gribbin) • (2022) On The Origin of Evolution: Tracing 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea' from Aristotle to DNA (with Mary Gribbin)

• (1984) In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality, Bantam Books, (reprinted in 2012 by Random House) • (1995) Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality, Back Bay Books, • (1998) Q Is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics, Free Press, • (2002) Quantum Physics (Essential Science), Dorling Kindersley, • (2007) La physique quantique, Pearson Education, • (2014) Computing with Quantum Cats: From Colossus to Qubits, Prometheus Books, • (2019) Six Impossible Things: The 'Quanta of Solace' and the Mysteries of the Subatomic World, Icon Books,

• (1979) Timewarps, Delacorte Press/E. Friede, • (1983) Spacewarps: Black Holes, White Holes, Quasars, and the Universe, Delta, • (1992) In Search of the Edge of Time: Black Holes, White Holes, Worm Holes, Bantam Books, (US title Unveiling the Edge of Time, Three Rivers Press. 1994 reprint)

• (1980) The Sixth Winter (with Douglas Orgill) Simon & Schuster • (1982) Brother Esau (with Douglas Orgill) Harper & Row • (1988) Double Planet (with Marcus Chown) Victor Gollancz • (1990) Father to the Man Tor Books • (1991) Ragnarok (with D.G. Compton) Gollancz • (1991) Reunion (with Marcus Chown) Gollancz • (1993) Innervisions Penguin Books • (2009) Timeswitch PS Publishing • (2011) The Alice Encounter PS Publishing

• (1992) Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science (with Michael White), National Academies Press, 2002 edition: • (1993) Einstein: A Life in Science (with Michael White), Simon & Schuster • (1995) Darwin: A Life in Science (with Michael White), Dutton Adult • (1997) Darwin in 90 Minutes (with Mary Gribbin), Constable and Robinson (Part of a series including: Curie, Einstein, Faraday, Galileo, Halley, Mendel, Newton) • (1997) Richard Feynman: A Life in Science (with Mary Gribbin), Penguin Books • (2003) FitzRoy: The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast (with Mary Gribbin), Yale University Press • (2009) He Knew He Was Right: The Irrepressible Life of James Lovelock and Gaia (with Mary Gribbin), Allen Lane. • (2009) Not Fade Away: The Life and Music of Buddy Holly (with Mary Gribbin) Icon, • (2013) Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution, Wiley,